Sign up to receive our free Tech e-newsletter and get the latest tech news, Hot Sites & more in your inbox.

E-mail:

Select one:
HTML
Text

Intel scraps plans for desktop, server computer chips

SAN FRANCISCO
(Reuters)
 Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, has scrapped plans for two new products as it shifts focus to making chips that have twice the computing power, a spokeswoman said Friday.

The move comes amid concerns that Intel chips were running too hot and, in future versions, would require too much power as well as expensive cooling systems, said Nathan Brookwood, an analyst with Insight 64.

The new strategy shows Intel is backing away from a focus on raw speed, which the company has used for years to distinguish itself from its rivals, he said.

Intel will focus on making chips that contain the cores of two microprocessors — "like putting two cylinders in a car instead of having one big cylinder," Brookwood said.

The chips being canceled include the fourth-generation Pentium 4 chip, code-named Tejas, which was to be sold next year. Also being dropped is a new Xeon processor for low-end computer servers, code-named Jayhawk and believed to be based on a similar architecture to Tejas.

Intel plans to introduce dual-core chips for desktop computers in 2005 and plans to start shipments of dual-core chips for notebook computers the same year, spokeswoman Laura Anderson said.

Dual-core was originally a feature to be introduced in Intel's Itanium chips for powerful data-serving business computers, she said.

"It's kind of a matter of reprioritizing our resources and accelerating development of dual core," she said.